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How Outlawing Fracking Would Hurt Americans

The Democrat party platform calls for outlawing fracking wherever states have done so.

What would be the effect on Americans if fracking was outlawed?

To determine what would happen to Americans if fracking was outlawed, it’s necessary to view the situation before fracking was used to extract oil and natural gas from shale.

Natural Gas, i.e., Methane

Prior to the advent of fracking, the United States was running out of natural gas, and LNG import terminals were being built. It should be noted that Democrat activists opposed the building of LNG import terminals, which would have resulted in greater shortages of natural gas if fracking hadn’t been invented.

The price of natural gas was peaking at around $13 per million BTU in 2006 and 2009, compared with the recent henry hub price of around $2 per million BTU.

Eliminating fracking would result in a huge increase in the price of natural gas, which would increase the cost of heating American homes, and increase the cost of electricity for all Americans.

It would also kill jobs.

Since 2009, several chemical companies have been building new facilities in the United States to utilize the low-cost natural gas produced by fracking, to produce chemicals and fertilizer.

Eliminating fracking would result in much higher natural gas prices, causing chemical companies, once again, to export jobs to areas of the world, mostly in the Mideast, where there was low-cost natural gas. Over 400,000 jobs were lost during the 1990s and early 2000s as companies moved chemical plants to where the cost of natural gas was cheap.

Eliminating fracking would also eliminate the possibility of exporting natural gas, with the loss of additional American jobs.

Oil

In 2005, the United States imported 10 million barrels of oil daily, or roughly half of US oil consumption.

By 2015, oil imports had been reduced to 7.3 million barrels per day.

Oil imports, as reported by the EIA

The ability of the United States to increase its oil production, as the result of fracking, had an important effect on the U.S. trade deficit.

Chart from the EIA

As the chart shows, oil imports have a huge effect on the U.S. trade balance. With a nearly 30% reduction in oil imports, the trade deficit was substantially reduced. The exporting of petroleum products and crude oil also has a beneficial effect on America’s trade balance.

Without fracking, America’s balance of trade will be badly damaged, with a resulting increase in the, already huge, national debt.

Eliminating fracking also kills oil field jobs, just as the war on coal killed coal mining jobs.

Fracking has forced OPEC to stop attempting to control the price of oil. If fracking is eliminated, OPEC has nothing to prevent it from policies that result in higher oil prices.

Summary

Eliminating fracking, when even the EPA has said there was no systemic negative effects on water supply, would cause serious economic harm to the economy and to every American … especially the poor who can least afford higher prices for heating, food and electricity.

The cost of natural gas to heat homes would increase dramatically

Industries that use natural gas for producing materials such as steel would see their costs increase

The cost of electricity would increase, harming Americans and American industry

The cost of natural gas to chemical companies would increase substantially, with the resulting elimination of thousands of American jobs, just as happened in the 1990s and early 2000s

The cost of gasoline will increase as OPEC regains control of oil prices

The cost of food will increase as the cost of operating farm equipment and the cost of transporting farm produce increases as the result of higher oil prices

Jobs will be killed in the oil field and in manufacturing

The deficit, which is already over $19 trillion, will increase as trade balances deteriorate

Eliminating fracking would cause great harm to America and Americans.

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Nothing to Fear, Chapter 9, The Utility Death Spiral, explains why displacing fossil fuels with wind and solar will result in the bankruptcy of Utilities and the possible takeover of the industry by the government.

Nothing to Fear is available from Amazon and some independent book sellers.

Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/1miBhXy

Book Cover, Nothing to Fear

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0 Replies to “How Outlawing Fracking Would Hurt Americans”

Donn,
An excellent summary of the destructive agenda in the Democratic platform that I cannot comprehend. Where is the 4th Estate? Why are they not looking at Venezuela and other failures clear in recent history? Are the Democrats really that ignorant of energy supply and the impact on the economy, or do they just not care as long as they have their short lived lifestyle of the elites, often at taxpayer expense? Has anyone noticed that Bernie has just purchased an expensive lake front home completely contrary to his claimed interest in helping those with less financial resources ? Astounding hypocrisy from a socialist who wants to take your money.

Fracking as well as other fossil fuel production on non-government lands have put the USA close to a position of energy independence from foreign sources. That should be celebrated! The jobs created in the fossil fuel industry have been the largest contributor to the modest recovery, especially from Texas.
,
You are correct, several years ago, a major chemical company which I have been consulting with, indicated they would never build another plant in the USA because of the investment environment. Now with the abundance of low cost natural gas due to fracking they now consider the US as a major place new new plants. The economy in that arena is booming with new investments and research into new more efficient processes utilizing natural gas from fracking.
As mentioned, the positive impact on Balance of payments with LNG export seems to be ignored as other industries are moving overseas.

We have a miss-education going on in this country based on a complicit media intentionally keeping the masses uninformed.

All good arguments for continuing to produce natural gas.
In the mid-1950s I lived in West-TX when the Permian oil field was at a drilling apex. Then, there was little market for all the natural gas that was produced from the many, many, oil wells being drilled. The gas was simply flared off (burned) at the well sites. One could drive at night across west-Tx without headlights, as the light from the flares and the drilling rigs lit the way. Shame.